How to Find Competitor Backlinks Worth Chasing

A competitor publishes something ordinary. It picks up 40 referring domains in a month.

You publish something better. It picks up four.

The usual advice is to go and get their links. That advice skips the only question that matters. How many of those 40 could you ever have won?

Usually the honest answer is somewhere between 12 and 18. The rest were never available to you.

This article will teach you how you can find competitor backlinks and “take” their links. Linkody is the tool that can not only help you assess competitor backlinks and show which backlinks are not linking to your site but also help to get all your competitor backlinks. Feeling like you struck a gold mine? Well, it’s pretty neat what this backlink tracker can do for you. In this quick guide you’ll learn:

• How to find competitor’s backlinks,
• Assess competitor backlinks,
• How to add competitor backlink as a prospect link,
• & which of the competitor backlinks you are missing.

While on your 30-day free Linkody trial, you will be able to add 1 competitor to one of your domains, for a total of 2 domains and 500 links monitored.

80/20 rule

Before the how, the why. Competitor analysis is one of the true 80/20 methods (80% of results come from 20% of causes) for link building. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just find out what the winners in your niche are already doing, and just do more (or better) of the same? You’re likely to find all kinds of link sources this way:

• You may find niche directories that your competitors are listed in. Most directories are a waste of time, but you may find attractive ones in your competitors’ link profiles, that are worth submitting to
• The same goes for other types of links you find in your competitors’ profiles: wiki links, social bookmarks, forum links, blog comments and so on.
• You might find awesome topics that can bring backlinks and increase your site’s authority.
• Locating sites that link with similar content that you already have is easier than ever. Just ask them to add a backlink to your page as well.

Find Competitor Backlinks

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to find competitors backlinks. 1) First, click on the domain itself, under “Domains“: 2) Then, from the drop-down menu “Competitors“, select “Add A Competitor“: 3) Type in your competitor (in our  case mailmunch.co) and hit “ADD COMPETITOR“: 4) You can navigate away from this page and come back later or press F5 to see the progression of the link search in real time: 5) Shortly, individual links from all unique domains will become visible: Note: Linkody will display 1 link per unique referring domain. And Boom, this is how you find competitors backlinks. And Linkody will keep looking for new links each week and send you an update via email with newly discovered competitor backlinks.

Check Competitor Backlinks

The Shared column tells you when you and one of your competitors already share a backlink. A single mark means the referring domain already links to you. A double mark means that exact page does: You can also filter all their backlinks to see:

• Which of your backlinks is also theirs;
• & which of competitor backlinks are not yet yours.

When analyzing competitors, each time when you think it would be a good idea to have a link from the same domain, you can select the + button and “add as a prospect link“: The prospect link will be assigned to your daily monitored links (read: all backlinks under “Links”), meaning that Linkody will start tracking its status and let you know when the link is acquired. Using Linkody’s metrics, you can also easily assess backlinks’ quality and aim for the higher ranking blogs. For example, you can order links by Moz PA (Page Authority) and scout for the popular blogs with low Spam Score, high EFL and shares, that have picked up a competitor: You may also want to keep an eye on the Spam Score and avoid getting links from sites with a high number:

First, cut that 40 down to something real

Back to the competitor from the start of this article, the one with 40 links to your four. You can see their list now. Before you start working through it, the number needs cutting down.

Forty referring domains is not forty editorial decisions. It is one number covering several different things, and only some of them involve a human choosing to link.

Pull the competitor’s link list and read it with that in mind. Four patterns account for most of the gap.

Syndication. One placement republished across a network. It looks like eight domains. It was one relationship and one email.

Shared hosting and site families. Sort the list by IP address. When six referring domains sit on the same IP, you are usually looking at one owner, not six. The TLD column tells a similar story when a cluster of country domains all point the same way.

Scrapers and aggregators. Sites that copy feeds automatically. Nobody chose to link, so nobody can be persuaded to link to you.

Paid drops. Harder to spot, but the pattern is familiar once you have seen it. Thin sites, unrelated topics, a footer full of outbound links, several placements landing in the same week.

The EFL column helps here. It counts the external followed links on the page doing the linking. A page with 4 outbound links is being editorial. A page with 180 is running a directory.

Work through those four and the number drops fast. What is left is the list of people who read something, decided it was worth citing, and did so. That is the only list you can compete for.

It is also a much less depressing list than 40.

Benefit from competitors’ strategies

Now you know which of their links were winnable. Here is how to pull them out by type. When you head over to “View All Competitors Links” or select one of your top competitors, there is amazing potential for finding backlinks. Here’s how to find competitor backlinks:

1) Find Guest Blogging Opportunities – Search for “blog” +Follow

In this way you will be able to find guest blogging opportunities.  If you see that somebody has mentioned your competitor and given a do-follow backlink – there is a huge chance they will do the same for you if your write a nice guest post. We tried this and from 10 sites we contacted we got 6 guest blogging opportunities.

2) Find Roundups – Search for “roundup” +Follow -Not Shared

Finding roundups where you haven’t participated will never be easier:

• Search for roundups
• Filter do-follow links
• Select “Not shared” – these are the backlinks from websites that haven’t given you a backlink before.

And just like that you will get a list of roundups where your competitors are mentioned but you are not.

3) Find Reviews – Search for “reviews” 

If you are looking for a website that could write a review for your (or client’s) product or service – there are huge chances that your competitors’ already have found one. In the search bar search for “review”, having follow links are optional in this case, and you will get a list of sites that have reviewed similar service to that of yours (or clients’).

4) Find Tool Lists – Search for “tool” or “list”

Locating all the “top tool lists”  will take 1 click – just search for “tool” or “list” and there you have them. There are over 14k websites and almost all of them have a list of tools where your site haven’t been included. Go through the list – and get backlinks.

Monitoring Competitor’s Top Pages

Linkody has a feature to quickly go through all your competitor results and find competitor backlinks that you just must have and the ones that would be good to have. It turns link building into a walk in the park.

Ready, set..

1. To get to the sweet part, click on “Competitors” button
2. And select “View all competitors links”

Then head over to the Link Intersect report (it used to be called “View Pages”). Et Voila – the top pages that link with your competitors. The best part, of course, is the overview:

1. You can view only the links that are NOT shared with you (backlinks that your competitors have but you don’t). Or check the competitor links that you have in common with your rivals.
2. Then you will be able to see URL and  The title of the page that links with your competitors. 
   • When we tested the new feature we found 5 amazing link opportunities that before we just didn’t notice – 4 SEO tool lists that link with our competitors but not us and a site that wrote a review about our competitor.

Go, take it for a spin and trust me, you will like it 😉

Use Competitors to Find Link Magnet Content (aka content that gets backlinks)

Linkody also allows to see which of your competitor’s pages have the most backlinks: And this is useful for several reasons:

• You can see which topics have the potential to generate a ton of backlinks
• You can find similar pages to yours and get those backlinks

Here’s what I mean

1) How to find topics that earn backlinks

People link with a certain type of content and finding which content will earn backlinks is a hard work. It’s impossible to know if your content will turn into a “link magnet”. The good news is – your competitors already have done the job for you! And even better news is – Linkody can help you to find content that gets backlinks: Within seconds we can see several trends:

1. Free Tools – people love free stuff and if you give away something for free – you will get backlinks in return.
2. Thought provoking content – people are very eager to share something that makes them feel good about themselves or is provoking something/someone.
3. How to guides – detailed educational content is the backlink gold mine.

Now, add your competitors to Linkody and see if there are any topics that get them a ton of backlinks. And if you can beat what they have created – go for it. In short, that’s a recipe to creating content that makes backlinks.

2) Find similar content and take competitor’s backlinks

While analyzing another competitor, we stumbled upon an article that’s exactly like one of our posts – 52 SEO tools Once we checked which exactly pages link with our competitor’s content – we noticed that we have only 2 backlinks in common: Just like this we found 14 websites that link with our competitors but not with us (for more information visit this post). What to do next? Contact these websites and ask for a backlink to your article – here’s how.

How to steal your competitors’ backlinks

By now you have a shortlist worth chasing. Here is how to turn it into actual links.

Strategy 1: Utilize the Same Backlinks As Your Competition

The first strategy for ethically stealing your competitor’s backlinks is using the same links. Here are the ways to find out what backlinks they got so you can copy their process.

Use a Software Tool and Ask For a Link or Do a Link Exchange

One way to ethically steal your competitors’ backlinks is to use the same backlinks they’re using.

You can use a backlink tool like Linkody to find the websites your competitor used for a link and email them to see about adding your link to their website. Just enter your competitor’s website, and it will show you all the websites linking to them.

Once you find the websites they used, you can ask for a link exchange with them.

Your competitor already has an excellent backlink from a robust and relevant page, so there’s a good chance you can get the same backlink if you meet the web admin’s interests, provide value, and fit well with the rest of their content.

For example, if your competitor got listed on an industry resource page or expert roundup, you could try to get listed on the same page. This would add more value to that website’s content.

You must ensure that you’re providing different value than your competitor and following the guidelines set out by the website’s administrator. But getting the same backlink as your competitor is a real possibility if you do.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a great way to build quality links, and it’s easy for you because your competitors are probably doing this too. You’ll want to quickly find which websites your competition is using and ask them if you can write a guest blog for their site. Most websites will allow you to at least link to your site with a link in the guest author’s bio, and some will even let you link to your blogs within the blog’s text.

Here are three ways to find the same backlinks that your competition used to get guest posts:

1. Google Advanced Search Queries: You should start on Google as most searches do. Find your competitor’s guest posts using this effective formula: “Author name” + “Guest post” -site.competitordomain.com -site:https://twitter.com. For example, “John Smith” + “Guest post” -site.competitordomain.com -site:https://twitter.com Or you can try “author name” + inurl:”author” (“John Smith” + inurl:”author”).

2. Reverse Image Search: If you have the author’s image, you can use Google’s Reverse Image Search program to find the author. Right-click on the image and select “Search Google for the image.”

3. Ahref’s Content Explorer: This is a simple option. Type in “author: author name” (e.g. author: John Smith). All of the articles written by that author will show up. You can see exactly which guest posts they have written and for whom. You can then email the same websites and ask to write guest posts for them.

Once you have found the posts and websites your competitors have written guest posts for, you’ll want to get as many links as possible connected to your site. Put your best foot forward by using these tried and tested link-building templates.

Start From the Top of Google and Work Down

Usually, when it comes to poaching your competitor’s links, the best place to start is from the top. By that, we mean the high-traffic pages driving the most referral traffic and links to their site.

Chances are, your competition did this same thing: Googled keywords in their industry and asked the top-ranking pages if they could exchange links or write guest posts.

The top pages are likely the most successful and popular ones on their website, so replicating their strategy can give you an advantage.

But don’t just copy their content once you find it. Try to improve on it by adding your insights and perspectives. This will help you stand out from the crowd and make it more likely that people will want to link to your page instead of theirs.

Then, work down their website, analyzing other high-traffic pages and replicating their strategies. And finally, focus on the low-traffic pages that could use some attention.

Following these processes can gradually build up your link profile while ethically stealing your competitor’s backlinks.

Strategy 2: Get a Backlink From a Different Page

It can be tough to get a leg up when you’re vying for the same backlinks as your competition. However, targeting different pages on the same site may have better success.

For example, if your competitor has a link from an article about the best SEO tools available, you can reach out to the site and see if they have a more relevant article to link to your website. You can use this same strategy for other types of content as well. With some luck, you can snag a backlink from a high-quality website.

Getting a backlink from a different page on the same website as your competition can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. They might tell you they already have an article about your niche or subject.

However, if you research the site and find a more relevant article, you may have a better chance of getting a backlink from that page. Then, you must follow the same outreach process as in strategy 1. There are plenty of outreach email templates out there you can use on the internet, and with some luck, you can get a valuable backlink for your site.

Strategy 3: Find a Backlink That Your Competition Doesn’t Have

Another way to ethically steal your competitors’ backlinks is to find a backlink they don’t have.

But first, you need to know what backlinks your competition has so you can get backlinks that they don’t have.

To find your competition’s backlinks, you can use one of the link building software tools mentioned above. Just enter your competitor’s website into the tool, and it will show you all the websites linking to them.

Once you have a list of websites linking to your competitor, you can try to find other websites in the same niche that aren’t linking to your competitor. Some software programs also have a “content gap” application that will tell you what holes the website has with their content that you should write about.

Another way to find a backlink your competitor doesn’t have is to get creative with your content.

For example, you could author a guest post on the website or be the protagonist of an interview-based post.

When pitching web admins for guest posts and interviews, clearly spell out the value you add to their website. Ask yourself what you can bring to their website and audience that no one else has. Sometimes offering a different point of view article or one written about the same topic from a different perspective will work.

You must stand out with all the spam requests flooding their inboxes daily. Standing out is vital when trying to get links from websites with a lot of content. If you can provide value that others can’t, you’ll likely get a link from them.

Strategy 4: Search For an Editorial Backlink

One final way to ethically steal your competitors’ backlinks is to search for an editorial backlink.

An editorial backlink is a backlink from a website that isn’t trying to sell anything. Instead, these websites are usually news, blog, or other websites that allow users to submit articles.

To find these websites, search for your industry + “submit article” or your industry + “write for us.”

For example, if you own a pet store, you could search for “pet stores submit article” or “pet stores write for us.” This will show you a list of pet stores looking for informative articles, which will contain your links.

The best way to get an editorial backlink is to create high-quality content that is valuable and interesting to the website owner. You can tell them about a tremendous resource you have, but make sure to leave any decisions about linking to them. In fact, you shouldn’t even mention a backlink.

The best resources to promote include whitepapers, e-books, infographics, or some unique research or data you obtained. Web admins are likelier to link to original, in-depth, up-to-date content.

The Wrap-up

Did this guide help you to understand what it takes to find competitors’ backlinks? It actually is not that hard – with Linkody this process can be automated to a whole new level:

1. Plug in your competitor domain names @Linkody,
2. Tool will find competitor backlinks,
3. You can assess your competitors’ backlinks and see how you can “steal” them.
4. Set the link acquisition targets and reach out to get new backlinks.

If you have any questions about how to find, filter & assess competitors backlinks – feel free to ask us in the comment section below.